When the wind tore roofs off Skopje's buildings, the authorities announced inspections and damage-assessment commissions. Fine - but the question we rarely ask is why some roofs blew off so easily.

After the powerful storm that left many buildings without roofs, inspections of the structures whose roofs blew off have been announced, and commissions to assess the damage will be formed. Skopje's municipalities are calling on citizens to report the consequences of the storm so that the damage can be recorded and, as the Government announced, reimbursed.

The procedure is standard: report, inspection, commission, report. The wind struck, the damage was done, and now the bureaucratic part begins - forms, commissions, waiting. For the people under the torn-off roofs, that waiting is not abstract; it means water coming into the flat at the next rainfall.

But behind every emergency intervention stands a lasting question too. The inspections will establish how great the damage is - but will they also establish why the roofs blew off? Part of the answer is a force of nature that cannot be prevented. Another part, perhaps, lies in the maintenance, in the quality of the workmanship, in how long ago anyone actually looked at those roofs. A commission that only measures the damage but does not seek the cause does half the job.